Kenya Crisis 2007/8

The 2007-08 Kenya Crisis was a political, economic, and humanitarian crisis that erupted in Kenya after incumbent President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner of the presidential election held on December 27, 2007. Supporters of Kibaki's opponent, Raila Odinga of the Orange Democratic Movement alleged electoral manipulation. This was widely confirmed by international observers,perpetrated by both parties in the election.

Violent protests began but were soon taken over by targeted ethnic violence, at first was directed mainly against Kikuyu people - the community of which Kibaki is a member - living outside their traditional settlement areas, especially in the Rift Valley. This violence began with the murder of over 50 unarmed Kikuyu women and children some as young as a month old, by locking them in church and burning them alive in Kiambaa village near Eldoret, on New Years Day. The slums of Nairobi saw some of the worst violence, some of this ethnically-motivated attacks, some simple outrage at extreme poverty, and some the actions of criminal gangs. The violence continued sporadically for several months, particularly in the Rift Valley.

Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan arrived in Kenya a month after the elections and successfully brought the two sides to the negotiating table with a power-sharing Cabinet, headed by Odinga as Prime Minister.